U.S. considers deeper push into Pakistan

DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT, NEW YORK TIMES

Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, March 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan.

According to senior administration officials, two of the high-level reports on Pakistan and Afghanistan that have been forwarded to the White House in recent weeks have called for broadening the target area to a major sanctuary in and around the city of Quetta.

Mullah Muhammad Omar, who led the Taliban government that was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, has operated with near impunity out of the region for years, along with many of his deputies.

The missile strikes being carried out by Central Intelligence Agency-operated drones have until now been limited to the tribal areas, and have never been extended into Baluchistan, a sprawling province that is under the authority of the central government, and which abuts the parts of southern Afghanistan where recent fighting has been the fiercest. There remains fear within the U.S. government that extending the raids would worsen tensions. Pakistan complains that the strikes violate its sovereignty.

But some U.S. officials say the missile strikes in the tribal areas have forced some leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaida to flee south toward Quetta, making them more vulnerable. In separate reports, groups led by both Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in the region, and Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, a top White House official on Afghanistan, have recommended expanding U.S. operations outside the tribal areas if Pakistan cannot root out the strengthening insurgency.